गुप्त अभिलेख संग्रह (जे. एफ. फ्लीट - गुप्त सम्राटों एवं परवर्ती नरेशों के ऐतिहासिक पाषाण व ताम्रलेख)

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS; NO. 24, PLATE XVA. 111
November), in the Mahâ-Mâgha samvatsara, without any reference to an era. But the
choice lies only between Gupta-Samvat 189 and 201; and, as we have for the Mahârâja
Hastin the early date of the year 156, in No. 21 above, page 93, the preference is in
favour of the year one hundred and eighty-nine (A. D. 508-9). The inscription is non-
sectarian; the object of it being simply to record the erection, at Âmblôda, of a boundary-
pillar between the territories of the two Mahârâjas in question.
One point of importance in connection with this inscription, is that its existence on
stone furnishes definite evidence that the Parivrâjaka Mahârâjas and the Mahârâjas of
Uchchakalpa really did belong to this part of the country. This is a point on which stone-
inscriptions give testimony of a kind that can never be derived from the mere finding, in a
certain locality, of copper-plates, which, being small and portable, are always liable to be
carried to a considerable distance from the places to which they properly belong,¹ and can
only be applied territorially when the places mentioned in them can be identified.
TEXT.²
1 Svasti Mahâdêva-pâd[â]-
2 nuddhyâtô(ta)-mahârâja-Hasti-
3 râjyê Âmblô³dê mahârâja-
4 Śarvvanâtha-bhôgê Indana-
5 naptrâ Vâsu-grâmika-puttra-
6 Śivadâsêna vala-ya-
7 shṭi uchchhritah⁴ [I*] Mahâ-
Mâghê
8 samba(mva)tsarê Kârttika-
mâsa
9 divasa 10 9 [II*]
TRANSLATION.
Hail! In (the boundary of) the kingdom of the Mahârâja Hastin, who meditates on
the feet of (the god) Mahâdêva; at (the village of) Âmblôda; (and) in (the boundary)
ment by which the bright half of the month comes first; and the second is a northern date, according
to the arrangement by which the dark half comes first. These instances, of course, are exceptional
ones. But they suffice to shew that, both in northern and in southern India, down to comparatively
late times, the numbering of the solar days and lunar tithis of the month up to thirty did occasionally
continue alongside of the more usual reckoning by fortnights, in which the lunar tithis of each fort-
night are denoted by the numbers one to fifteen only, and the solar days by the numbers one to
fourteen, fifteen, or sixteen, as the case may be.
¹ A marked instance of the distances to which copper-plates and seals may travel, is afforded by
the finding of the seal of the Maukhari Śarvavarman, No. 47 below, at Asîrgaḍh in the Nimâḍ District
in the Central Provinces. Its original locality must have been some hundreds of miles to the
east of this.
² From the ink-impression.
³ The engraver seems to have first engraved hlô, or perhaps dhlô, and then corrected it into
mblô.
⁴ Read valaya-yashṭir=uchchhritâ. — As regards the correction of vala into valaya, vala-yashṭi
or bala-yashṭi gives no meaning; whereas the appropriateness of valaya-yashṭi, 'boundary-staff or
pillar,' is apparent. The mistake arose from the omission to repeat, at the beginning of line 7, the
ya at the end of line 6.